Public Concert: Lucas Fels (Cello) and Nicola Hein (Electric Guitar, Electronics)

Lucas Fels (Cello):

Roger Sessions: Six Pieces for Cello (1966)
Helmut Lachenmann: Pression (1970)

Nicola Hein (Electric Guitar, Electronics):

Improvisation

The concert will take place in our ArtLab. Admission is free, no pre-registration is required. Click here for directions to our institute.

About the artists:

Lucas Fels

Born in Lörrach (Germany), Lucas Fels he received his first cello lessons in Basle and Zurich and studied in Freiburg with Christoph Henkel, Amsterdam with Anner Bijlsma and Fiesole with Amadeo Baldovino.

As founding member of the highly renowned Ensemble Recherche, Lucas has been actively involved in the development of contemporary chamber and ensemble music and has premiered several hundred compositions during his 21 years of membership.He joined the Arditti Quartet in 2006; his discography with the quartet includes the complete string quartets by H. Lachenmann, P. Dusapin, J. Harvey, H. Birtwistle, R. Gerhard, B. Ferneyhough and B. Casablancas.

He has premiered the cello concertos by Wolfgang Rihm (Styx und Lethe, 1998), Walter Zimmermann (Subrisio Saltat, 2003), Sebastian Claren (After Blinky Palermo 2002), Mathias Spahlinger (Lamento, protokoll 2013) and others.

Lucas Fels has taught regularly at different conservatories and has lectured at Darmstädter Ferienkurse for 20 years. Since 2013, he is Professor for “Interpretatorische Praxis und Vermittlung neue Musik“ at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main.

Nicola Hein

Nicola L. Hein  (*1988 in Düsseldorf) is a sound artist, guitarist, composer and scholar. His work is driven by the interaction of sound and space, light, movement, thought and the becoming of embodied and intermedial intelligence in aesthetic systems, community and technology. In his artistic work he uses physical and electronic extension of the electric guitar, sound installations, cybernetic human-machine interaction with A.I. interactive music systems, Augmented Reality, telematic real-time art, ambisonic sound projection, instrument building, conceptual compositions, inter-media works (w/video art, light, dance, literature) and much more.

In his work as a sound artist he builds installations, sculptures, instruments, researches the interaction of sound, material and space, works with field recordings, programs (intelligent) software systems, creates a multitude of intermedial works, engages in network technologies and artistically develops dances of agency between the human, nature and technology. 

He explores the possibilities of the electric guitar as a modular becoming of technology and sound. In this process the guitar is played with objects, extended techniques, stratified by the use of analog and digital effects as well software programming and is understood and developed as a creator of space and interaction. The use of Artificial Intelligence/machine learning, ambisonic spatialization and the interaction with autonomous interactive music systems play a central role in his practice.

In his compositions he finds different ways of creating interactive spaces, integrating philosophical ideas into music composition and aesthetic system design. From the interplay of these partners an aesthetic emerges that is based on the spontaneity of the performance and the setting of aesthetic action spaces alike.

His research revolves around questions of philosophy of music, epistemology, aesthetics, media theory, critical improvisation studies and cybernetics. It follows questions of the creation of identity and sense in interactions between humans and technology, investigates the philosophical implications of musical and intermedial practices.